That Fuzhou court found that Apple violated two of Qualcomm’s software patents around resizing photographs and managing applications on a touch screen.

“Apple continues to benefit from our intellectual property while refusing to compensate us,” Don Rosenberg, general counsel of Qualcomm, was quoted as saying in a statement.

But as this lawsuit concerns software, Apple can change iOS to later versions to avoid the alleged infringement, and Apple did state that all its iPhones remain on sale in the country, with newer software.

“Qualcomm’s effort to ban our products is another desperate move by a company whose illegal practices are under investigation by regulators around the world,” Apple was quoted as saying in its statement.

Bitter fight

Qualcomm and Apple are locked in a bitter legal battle around the world. It should be noted that the Chinese ruling is separate from the other cases.